HCA Healthcare-Tufts University School of Medicine: Portsmouth Regional Hospital Program

Program Identity & Fit

This is a community-based, HCA Healthcare-affiliated internal medicine program with academic ties to Tufts University School of Medicine, training 10 residents per year at a 220-bed hospital that functions as a regional referral center for cardiology, trauma, and critical care despite its size, giving residents tertiary-level acuity in a community setting. The curriculum emphasizes graduated autonomy with 24/7 in-house attending backup, a novel week-based (rather than block-based) scheduling structure introduced in 2025, and structured skills training in point-of-care ultrasound and critical care via SCCM modules. Scholarly activity is required but modestly scoped (one QI project, hospital committee involvement, optional faculty collaboration) rather than a defining feature, and the program explicitly frames its goal as producing "well-rounded general internists" prepared for either primary care, hospitalist practice, or subspecialty fellowship. The program's stated emphasis on resident well-being (HCA's "Pathways to Flourishing" framework), individualized scheduling, and continuity clinic embedded in a mature outpatient practice suggests it values residents seeking balanced, broad-based general medicine training over intensive research or narrow specialization tracks.